i'm mandy drury.n today's power pitch we have a startup that invented a new high tech version of lego. we have the ceo and founder of little bits. she studied engineering and is an alumni of the m.i.t. media lab. she was awarded a fellowship. let's take a look at her power pitch. >> i'm the founder and ceo of little bits. little bits is a library of electronic modules that snap together with magnets for learning, prototyping and play. essentially each module is like a lego brick but it's electronic. it has one function like light and sound and sensors and motors and you can combine them in any configuration to make your own robot or your own toys or your own functional prototype. many large technologieses that have changed societies usually start in the hands of experts and then become accessible to every day people. for example, manufacturing used to be something that only large companies with a lot of capital could do. now with the 3d printing revolution, anyone can participate in manufacturing from

hey, you're mandy drury. >> i am mandy drury. >> how you feeling? >> last time i checked i was mandy drury. >> sound a little different. how you feeling? >> i've got a barry white voice today. >> very cool. so i will take this. here's what else is topping today's show besides the picks. why against all odds the consumer is still king. incredible stats you got to hear on retail. is real estate really slowing. the story about housing you may not hear anywhere else. and the big money that colorado is finding in dope. >>> okay. you want some records, we have records. these are being broken, folks. you have the russell 2k, the small guys hitting a new record today while the nasdaq composite hit a new 14 year high for the third consecutive day. the s&p 500, meantime, is trading above its record close. >>> thank you. i will take it from here. >> that sounds like the godfather. >> i'm al green. history is littered with those who dared to bet against the american shopper. every time somebody says retail is dead, retail seems to rally. even with this weather,

apparently bankrupt, our friend, cnbc's mandy drury is here. rd high yesterday. what's going on? >> yeah, and it's pushing further and further today. we have a nice little rally on our hands as i'm speaking. you know, yesterday, ari, i think it was the testimony that the new fed chairwoman janet yellen gave because it was perceived as market friendly. she said it would take a significant change to the economy's prospects for the fed to put its plans to taper or reduce the bond buying program on hold, suggesting no serious concern about that recent string of economic indicators that we've seen that have been coming in fairly week, or at least below forecast, so a lot of people have been saying it's the weather, severe winter, as opposed to worsening fundamentals, so i think that was a calming point of view for the market. as we stand, all three major indexes are set to end this month and the week with gains. and the nasdaq is on track for its fourth straight weekly rise. i should also really quickly point out, one big stand out yesterday in trade

mandy drury is here with what's moving your money on this wednesday. 's the beginning of a nice run. >> you know wall street hates uncertainty. i think it was janet yellen's message of continuity that encouraged the market. there was no abrupt turn in her language and the message really was, unless the economic outlook significantly changes, they are not going to change the pace of the taper. >> she put this plan together she's supporting. she's saying, yeah, let's do this, let's do this. >> absolutely. she's extremely familiar with the communication language bernanke has been using. you could have almost ripped what she said from past statements. but what's also interesting is she reiterated the stock market is not in a bubble. that's a green light to the market and also what's really getting lost in all of this is that earnings season, the earnings season has turned out to be a whole lot better than a lot of people were expecting and that got lost earlier in the year. >> which turns into jobs and buying, which is good for the economy. let's move to a

mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. k is planning to close hundreds of stores after spending $4 million on that ad. >> right. you know what, i should also say a lot of people thought that ad during the super bowl was one of the best. i guess it was also kind of symbolic, because according to people familiar with the matter, radio shack is planning to close around 500 locations in coming months. it is not clear exactly which of the stores it's going to close. they have about 4,000 company-owned stores and then fran chiechise franchises. you might remember back in october, radio shack secured $835 million in loans to refinance about $625 million of its debt and that freed up some cash for them to be able to overhaul, you know, there used to be the old school electronics store, now, of course, it looks more like an apple store, the new ones do. you can get cool gadgets and all kinds of cool things, so it is trying to restructure itself. >> i don't want to fact check you, but i don't think of radio shack that cool, it's wher

mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. what are the details?e that netflix is going to pay comcast to make sure that all those netflix movies and tv shows that you enjoy stream smoothly, obviously, that is if you are a comcast customer. it is being considered a big deal because it sets a precedent for netflix's business it does with other broadband providers. so the deal is for its payment, netflix will get direct access to comcast broadband network, and this is important because there's so much internet usage, a lot of volume and that can cause delays for customers trying to stream netflix movies and tv shows. i've had that situation myself and it costs money to upgrade, so you can understand why the major u.s. providers like comcast want to be paid for those connections so they can do the upgrades and keep things moving fast, and netflix does have a lot of heavy traffic that goes through the networks. as i say, it does set a precedent here and we could see netflix agreeing to compensate the other providers, as well. that's something we need t

a check on what's coming up on "street signs," over to mandy drury. >> thank you, dominic chu. this the eye of the storm or is the storm over j over? and on our show, saying not so fast. also, amazon has probably already taken over your shopping cart. right? now it feels like amazon might be eyeballing your living room as well. we're going to discuss that and, of course, much more, guys. tune in. top of the hour, in about 15 minutes' time from now. back to you. >> mandy, thank you. looking forward to that. >>> meantime, shares of general motors moving higher, even though the company's latest profits dropped by 13% by missing estimates. revenues fell short. phil lebeau speaking with gm's chief financial officer. opened lower, trading higher, what's going on? >> part of the conference call with ceos and when you look what they said on the conference call no panic. no, hey, things are collapsing around us. it was more a case of we know we had issues in the fourth quarter and believe that the 2014 will be even better. keep in mind, gm eps for the fourth quarter, 21 cents below esti

the dow is off to its worst start since 2011 and we have cnbc's mandy drury here with what's moving youry for the s&p 500 was the worst start to february going all the way back to 1928. that's really putting it in perspective. you know, what's going on is a number of things and i should firstly preface this by saying the markets are stabilizing a bit, but there's a lot of things going on all at once. sort of pick your poison here. you've got worries about u.s. economic data, which hasn't been that good. you also have china, maybe it's slowing down more than we were expecting. there's a lot of emerging market turmoil and here at home really bad weather. that does disrupt activity, it does disrupt people getting out there and doing things like buying a car. >> so, yeah, enough bad weather may have people making a predictive decision about what they want to do? >> yeah, absolutely. last year was incredible, wasn't it for the markets? we had double digit rises for all three indexes. a lot of people are saying, okay, having a bit of a market rout right now, but whether or not you're planning

i have mandy drury here to tell us all about it. what's going on. >> you remember.ber of the program. >> how did you know that? i told you in the -- >> i didn't work that out for myself. i know you're a bit of a pop you list and like to fly coach, so this new change in the frequent flyer program will not benefit you. >> really? >> january 1st of next year you are dug to accrue miles not based on how far you fly, but on what the ticket costs, on the ticket price. who do you think that will benefit? >> probably the people who get the better ticket. >> absolutely. the business class travelers, first-class travelers, people who say i've got to go on this vacation, as they book their flight at the last metropolitan. why? according to "wall street journal," the top 4% of delta's customers account for about 25% of their revenue, so delta naturally wants to keep those business flyers really, really happy. as for the coach people, like yourself, it's kind of bad luck a little bit. you know what? you can go elsewhere, maybe to a lower-cost airline lie southwest or jetblue or

. >> i'm mandy drury. on today's power pitch, we have a startup that wants to give you the power to turn your text messages into a book that is literally a page turner. tyler barnett is the co-founder of textbook. before running this venture he launched several mobile apps including so annoying, a platform of people about what is annoying them. let's take a look. >> i'm tyler, co-founder of textbook.com, a service that takes a text message conversation on your phone and transforms it into a book. billions of texts are received every day. even in my own relationship, i have sent thousands. these messages chronicle our modern lives and preserve the jokes, photos and crazy nights that we need to remember. i sought to create a simple way to turn these messages and photos into a book. we started textbook.com, an android app and iphone service that creates a customized memoir with a title and cover. one book option even makes your text read like a novel. textbook has a dual revenue stream, the purchase of the bo

. >> i'm mandy drury.n today's "power pitch" we have a startup that is revolutionizing one of the world's most recognized medical devices. yep, the thermometer. before launching his own startup, inder was at the clinton health access initiative. he raised more than $50 million and helped millions of people get access to life-saving medicines. let's take a look at his pitch. >> i'm inder. i'm the founder of kinsa. we are reimagining the world's most common medical device. this is the world's smartest thermometer. it connects to your phone through the headphone jack and does what no other thermometer can. for example, we use the visual display of the smartphone to create a fun and engaging experience for a child. making it easier to take a sick child's temperature. with a few simple taps, you can track symptoms over time and even send that to your doctor. the various features of the app, you can also see the local health situation or the health situation at your child's school. this is also a less expensive

mandy drury is filling in today. what's on tap? >> cnbc is going to be omnipresent.. you have "fast money" on the way. you can listen to it on the radio. myself and the guys here. back to you, kelly. >> okay. that's hi, pereverybody. that's coming up. one story we want to get to today, facebook announcing it's offering a new custom gender field. it expands options for users to choose what they declare themselves beyond male or female. what i like is john fort's take on this. explain the importance of this, sir. >> i think part of the reason why this is important is because facebook is huge. it's sort of become the new census form. for a lot of transgender people and others in this community, they've been looking for ways to do this on facebook. facebook has finally given them a standard way to do it. >> maybe as facebook goes, the census will follow. thank you for being here. so much to get through, and a lot happening next. olympic curling and "fast money" freestyle. enjoy it all. uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last.

. >> it's a good thing we have mandy drury here, because come on up, you can fathom -- >> it just workedoing here? >> it's an embarrassment of riches to have -- >> cnbc is just taking over. >> you like what quewe're doing here? >> i feel outnumbers. >> and tomorrow, more. we'll multiply. >> yeah, thanks, guys. thank you, thomas. i'll see you 2:00 eastern. did i say 2:00 eastern? >> a great tease for cnbc. coming up next, the best of late night. don't go anywhere. honestly? my kids were always on my laptop. i didn't think i could buy them their own, let alone for under $300. but this asus with windows is lightweight and has everything they need -- not like chromebooks that can't install office or have to be connected to the internet to get much done. with this they can do homework, chat, play games -- on their own laptop, and their own time. so no more fighting... at least not over my laptop. ♪ honestly, i wanna see you be brave ♪ so ally bank has a that won't trap me in a rate. that's correct. cause i'm really nervous about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! i have my re